SAS and Europe airlines’ new routes to China

The flights recently resumed by SAS between Copenhagen and Shanghai Pudong have attracted plenty of attention, not least from the website anna.aero, which made it “route of the week”. SAS flies to its second Chinese destination (after Beijing) five times a week (excluding Mondays and Wednesdays out of CPH) using a 245-seat A340-300. It previously operated the route between 2004 and 2007. SAS says that around 25% of the passengers are expected to be Chinese.Among other new routes launched over the last week, Etihad began operations to a third destination in mainland China (after Beijing and Chengdu), which was also Shanghai Pudong and also five times weekly, from Abu Dhabi.A number of Europe’s flag carriers have changed their long-haul networks for this summer. Other new destinations to China from Europe include Air France’s Wuhan service from April, a Chongqing route by Finnair from May and Lufthansa’s Shenyang service.anna.aero[pictured: Train emerging from Pudong International Airport]